I’m Having a Hard Time Making a Decision

Many of my clients suffer from what I term “Analysis Paralysis.” This happens when the person has several job/career ideas rolling around in their head, but they over-analyze them to the point that they make no decision and therefore take no action. The result: they continue to stay stuck and discouraged. For many, this is one of the most difficult parts of the career development process.

Dr. Edward A. Colozzi, a respected leader in the field of career development, came up with a seven step career decision-making system that works. This article is intended to build upon his important work.

1. Identify the Decision

Your first step is to become aware of your need to make a specific decision. Step back and analyze the situation. What exactly is the problem? Are you viewing the problem correctly? Do you want to change your situation? What are your needs?

2. Gather Information

At this stage, you gather two types of data: 1) Self-Assessment information, and 2) World of Work information. The Self-Assessment information constitutes your VIPS (Values, Interests and Personality Traits). This can be done through career counseling, assessment testing and a career development questionnaire. The World of Work information consists of: 1) Nature of the Work, 2) Qualifications and Training, 3) Working Conditions, 4) Advancement, 5) Job Outlook, 6) Related Occupations, and 7) Salary/Benefits.

3. Identify Alternatives

Next, match your Self-knowledge with your World of Work information to identify ten potential alternatives. In this step you are trying to make a satisfactory “Person-to-Environment” match. Write down your top ten job/career options in no particular order.

4. Weigh Evidence

Now you need to evaluate each of these ten job/career options by conducting what is known as a “S.W.A.T. Analysis.” S.W.A.T. stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Take each job/career option and on create four columns, each representing one word of the S.W.A.T. acronym. Next, create a detailed list of what you perceive to be at least five for every strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. Think carefully about the pros and cons for each possible option. What are the risks and rewards?

5. Choose Alternatives

In step five, your task is to rank in priority order the top ten job/career options based on the results of what you learned from the S.W.A.T. Analysis. After that, these job/career options should be prioritized into three types of jobs:

A. Ideal/Dream Jobs – These are the jobs you really, really want. If you landed one of these jobs, it would feel like coming in first place or earning an Olympic Gold Medal. You will experience the most career satisfaction and fulfillment in one of these jobs. These also involve the most risk-taking to achieve. If you can’t get one of these this year, set a goal to be in it within five years.

B. Realistic/Good Enough Jobs – These jobs represent the most realistic positions for your current situation. This list consists of the ones that you can probably get and would be fine doing them. These are your back-up jobs that are less than ideal. Securing one of these jobs is like coming in second place or earning an Olympic Silver Medal. These are less risky.

C. Safety-Survival/Rock Bottom Jobs – These are the jobs of last resort in your current search. This list consists of jobs that you would be willing to take in order to pay your bills and just survive. You will only want to take these jobs when you can’t find anything else. This is like coming in third place or earning an Olympic Bronze Medal. These are the least risky.

6. Take Action

Once you have written down the priority order of the jobs/careers you are considering, it’s time to take the first step – creating a Strategic Action Plan. Now, you have to decide which of the three types you are willing to pursue at the present time. Consider the sacrifices you are willing to make. The Action Plan is a one page list of Long-term Goals (three to five years), Intermediate-term Goals (one to three years) and Short-term Goals (less than one year). Turn each type of objective into a “S.M.A.R.T. Goal” which mean they are: 1) Specific, 2) Measurable, 3) Action-Oriented, 4) Realistic, and 5) Time-Sensitive. Make sure your Short-term Goals are so small that there’s no way you can fail. Each day ask yourself, “What is one thing I could do today to help me reach my goals?”

7. Review Consequences

Finally, at regular intervals take time out to reflect on the specific action items you have or have not implemented. What’s working? What’s not working? What do you need to start doing? What do you need to stop doing? What do you need to do more of? What do you need to do less of? What do you need to continue doing? What do you need to do differently? What needs to be changed or modified moving forward? What barriers need to be broken down? Evaluate the outcomes and then set new goals if necessary.

One Response

Thanks Tom for your mention of my model that I call, “Reflective/Intuitive”. It encourages a planful approach ( modifying the work of JoAnn Bowlsbey) and supplements it with an intuitive component that, with both components working together, allows a decider to move back and forth between the cognitive and affective continuum. This furthers enables people to develop a sense of personal agency, a stronger internal locus of control, and facilitates what I call, “an attitude of adaptability”, necessary for dealing with the many uncertainties that exist throughout one’s career-life journey. I speak more about this in my recent blog posts. http://bit.ly/dWOQCb